Chapter 35 Part 1

Anyway, Ming Siyu often got upset over ridiculously trivial things. Liu Ran didn’t care.

In the end, she still didn’t wear that set of sweat-soaked dirty clothes and barely managed by wrapping herself in a bath towel. In the afternoon, Ming Siyu didn’t make her go out with Secretary Lin again. Instead, she kept her in the office to help proofread some documents and asset calculations. At first, Liu Ran went to great lengths to hide her tail, but later she got tired. Since the office only had her and Ming Siyu, every hair on her tail had been touched by Ming Siyu anyway, so there was no need to hide it. She simply let her tail hang naturally, with a section exposed outside the bathrobe, and focused intently on studying those materials that were still unfamiliar to her.

When it was time to get off work and go home, Liu Ran felt too embarrassed to wear the bathrobe again, so she changed back into her dirty clothes and went home with Ming Siyu. They arrived at the underground parking garage of the residential complex and got out of the car, only to see Ming Siwei standing at the elevator entrance.

Liu Ran had only recently learned that the home she returned to every day with Ming Siyu was a high-end residential building developed by Ming Siyu’s own company. Ming Siyu had reserved the best unit for herself during the design phase and had a dedicated elevator and underground garage built exclusively for her use.

Ming Siwei wore a sexy tight strap top paired with cargo pants, her earrings as exaggerated as ever, and flashed a brilliant smile.

“Sister A-Yu. A-Ran.”

Ming Siyu told Liu Ran to go upstairs first.

As Liu Ran passed by Ming Siwei, she glanced back and entered the elevator.

Ming Siyu slightly raised her chin as she looked at Ming Siwei. “A-Ran… you two seem pretty familiar.”

Ming Siwei’s smile was a bit ingratiating. “A little familiar. Yesterday at Grandma’s, we talked for a bit. She asked me if G Country was fun.”

So Little Wolf had talked to Ming Siwei again yesterday. She had clearly emphasized it before. Out of everyone, why did it have to be Ming Siwei?

“You said you’d leave after Grandma’s birthday. Why haven’t you rolled back to G Country yet?”

“I’ve got a flight tomorrow morning at seven.” Ming Siwei took a few steps forward and lifted the gift box in her hand toward Ming Siyu. “Sister A-Yu, actually, I handmade two vests—one for Grandma and one for you. Yesterday, I really didn’t find a good chance to give it to you, and I’m leaving tomorrow, so I came at noon and waited here all afternoon for you.”

Ming Siyu glanced at the gift box but didn’t take it. Instead, she mocked, “What’s this? Why didn’t you just go straight into my house this time?”

Ming Siwei gave a wry smile. “Last time I did that and got chased off to G Country. I’m afraid this time it’ll be H Country or K Country… Sister A-Yu, if you don’t want to, you don’t have to force yourself to try things out with Jian Huaijin just because Grandma wants you to. I can talk to Grandma for you…”

She was interrupted.

“Since when do you have the right to meddle in my affairs?”

Ming Siwei took a deep breath. “Sister, it’s been so many years. I’ve long known I was wrong about that incident. I was young and immature back then, manipulated by someone else. What do I have to do for you to forgive me?”

“Ming Siwei, you really haven’t grown at all.” Ming Siyu raised her hand, her fingertip hooking the ribbon on the gift box. With a flick of her wrist downward, the box hit the ground with a smack.

“Don’t fool me with that ‘young and immature’ excuse. Even elementary school kids know what you did was illegal. My biggest regret is not turning you in back then. You’re not stupid—you’re malicious. That act of yours might fool Grandma and those idiot relatives, but in front of me, there’s no need.”

Ming Siwei crouched down to pick up the bag. “Sister A-Yu, don’t be angry. I specially went to Cloud City to learn from the inheritor for this vest—from cutting the hemp to threading the warp to weaving, I did it all by hand. I really spent a long time on it. Will you accept it?”

Ming Siyu’s lips moved. In the end, she still didn’t take it and spat out one word: “Scram.”

Ming Siwei hit a wall and slunk away dejectedly.

In the elevator, Ming Siyu’s mind lingered on what Ming Siwei had said—about Liu Ran talking to her at the birthday banquet yesterday.

G Country being fun? Did Little Wolf want to experience the local customs there too?

Yesterday, she had laid down exactly two rules for Liu Ran: drink in moderation and don’t get drunk and make a fool of herself, and don’t talk to Ming Siwei. Two rules, and Liu Ran had broken both.

If Ming Siwei hadn’t mentioned it, she probably never would have known that Liu Ran had violated her rules behind her back.

Ming Siyu hated it most when people broke the rules she set.

Back home, Liu Ran was taking a shower.

Ming Siyu stared at the tightly closed bathroom door, her gaze as if it could burn a hole through it.

Qi Zhen had originally come to ask about buying furniture for Liu Ran. But before she even got close, her long experience working around Ming Siyu made her keenly sense the murderous aura. She quietly retreated, thinking that the house was bound to become a battlefield again today.

Liu Ran’s phone was on the sofa. Ming Siyu picked it up, unlocked it with her own birthday, and went through every app one by one.

There wasn’t much content on the phone. Apart from the pre-installed apps, Liu Ran had only downloaded navigation, a match-3 game, an expense tracker, Weibo, and a few other common ones. Ming Siyu started with WeChat. Liu Ran’s contacts and chat history only had her.

She hadn’t even bothered to change the note—it was still her online username. Ming Siyu openly tapped into “Set Name and Tags” and changed the note to “Dear Master.”

She went through the call logs and social apps one by one. Nothing suspicious.

Next was the photo album.

The album was even more boring, with only a few hundred photos, most of them shots of building assets.

Her finger slid down. She paused at the earliest batch of photos.

Ming Siyu clicked on one in surprise.

It was actually a photo of her.

A red-background ID photo from her university days. With the trendy hairstyle back then that now looked tacky, her face full of youthful collagen, eyes full of disdain for the camera and everything else, pretending to be aloof and superior, but without enough life experience yet—it came off like a kid wearing adult clothes.

Ming Siyu recognized it as the photo from the access card she had lent Liu Ran before.

It was the only portrait in the entire album.

Suddenly, Ming Siyu lost the desire to look through anything else. She couldn’t just believe Ming Siwei’s one-sided story. Yesterday was at the Ming Family home, and no matter what, Ming Siwei was a Ming. If she had grabbed Liu Ran to talk and been a little friendly, Liu Ran couldn’t exactly snub her completely.

Liu Ran, afraid of anyone discovering her ears and tail, wished she could turn invisible and disappear. She wouldn’t actively seek out Ming Siwei to talk.

Since it wasn’t Liu Ran who initiated it, she’d magnanimously let it slide this time.

That evening, He Qiange called again to ask about the City West Fourth Ring development.

It had been nearly a month since it was last brought up. Ming Siyu hadn’t been very interested and had someone appraise it before dropping it. He Qiange pressed, and Ming Siyu gave her a formal reply: “No energy for it.”

“Okay.” It was the expected response. He Qiange said, “Then I’ll team up with someone else. Have you been going for your checkups on time? How’d the results turn out?”

Ming Siyu set down the foreign-language book in her hand and leaned back lazily in the hammock by the floor-to-ceiling window. “A thousand times over, it’s the same result. You’ve been footloose and fancy-free outside for half a month now. When are you coming back?”

“Not done playing yet—hey, I’m off to dance. Si Si, you really should come with me. It’s so much fun here.”

Liu Ran pretended to look at the art book, but the moment Ming Siyu mentioned “West Fourth Ring,” her ears perked up. Unfortunately, the topic of the West Fourth Ring Center Development Zone wrapped up in just a few sentences. Ming Siyu had her earphones in, so Liu Ran couldn’t hear He Qiange’s side and could only piece together the conversation from Ming Siyu’s responses.

Liu Ran was puzzled. Why didn’t Ming Siyu want to participate in the West Fourth Ring Center Development Zone project?

She also recalled He Qiange and Ming Siyu’s whispering at Jian Huaici’s birthday banquet. She couldn’t tell if Ming Siyu was invested in the real estate development investment company she had personally founded or planning to gradually let it go.

Out of selfishness, Liu Ran kind of hoped Ming Siyu’s company would join, so she might have a chance to get involved.

She opened her phone and let out an “Awooo” on the spot.

It made Ming Siyu frown and tilt her head to look at her.

Liu Ran held up her phone, furious. “Ming Siyu, did you mess with my phone?!”

What the hell was “Dear Master”? She could figure out who did it with a single strand of hair!

Ming Siyu said domineeringly, “What’s yours or mine? What’s yours is mine. What’s wrong with me changing the note on my phone?”

“You’re bullying me too much. I’m changing it back.” With that, she tapped into the friend settings.

Ming Siyu: “Go ahead and change it. Every time you do, I’ll deduct a wage—one thousand each time.”

Liu Ran: “…”

She felt like she was one step away from developing a mammary nodule from anger.

Ming Siyu dangled her phone in front of Liu Ran. “But I can compensate you.”

Liu Ran couldn’t help but ask, “How?”

“How about changing the note for me in your phone to ‘Dear Little Wolf’? Hmm, Master and Little Wolf—sounds pretty good.”

Liu Ran was speechless.

She ground her teeth. “Heh. No thanks.”

She just wouldn’t look at WeChat.

The next day, Liu Ran quietly asked Secretary Lin about the West Fourth Ring matter. Secretary Lin said they’d heard some rumors too. In this industry, it was all about who could sniff out the trends fastest.

But without President Ming’s say-so, it could only stay at the “heard about it” stage.

Liu Ran couldn’t understand it, but Secretary Lin was unfazed. “Just trust the boss’s decisions. We just need to follow her lead and work hard!” Then, she squinted with a particularly sleazy grin. “Or does our Secretary Liu want to take the lead on a big project to impress President Ming? Then go beg President Ming. Maybe she’ll throw tens of billions your way for it—want a piece of the crispy pastry my sister-in-law brought from back home?”

“No, I was just asking casually.”

Liu Ran took the pastry and ate it. Everyone in the company tacitly knew about her relationship with President Ming and treated her politely.

For several days in a row, Liu Ran stayed at the real estate company. Following Secretary Lin and the other colleagues, she learned a lot, and her drive to compete with Ming Siyu weakened considerably. She wasn’t sure if Ming Siyu was making full use of her eighty-thousand-yuan salary or had other motives, but she knew that working at Ming Siyu’s company—and being personally mentored by the boss’s secretary—wasn’t an opportunity that came easily. So she cherished it even more.

An international top-tier ballet troupe’s world tour arrived in Empire A City. On Friday morning, Jian Huaijin had two ballet tickets sent directly to Ming Group headquarters. Ming Siyu casually left them on the desk. That morning, Liu Ran worked with the assets department staff on an asset analysis. At noon, she rushed to Ming Group, only to be pinned on the sofa by Ming Siyu, who played with her ears until her face was flushed red. She bit her lip and whimpered. The moment Ming Siyu stopped, she bounced up, making an excuse to go to the bathroom.